Bangkok man sought after wife’s body found buried

Bangkok police are gathering evidence to apply for a court arrest warrant for a man whose wife was found murdered and buried in the compound of their house.

Manop Soponwasu, 36, has disappeared since filing a missing-person report with Thung Kru police on February 17 regarding his wife Issada Usapian, 35, who he said he hadn’t seen since February 4.

Three days later Manop urged police to dig around his house on Soi Pracha Uthit 86 looking for her body, but before they could comply, he vanished.

Thung Khru superintendent Pol Col Surawet Kansiriwattanasirikul said on Monday that Issada’s relatives had noticed a suspicious pile of sand in the side yard the day before and dug down 30 centimetres, where they came across a human hand.

Forensics experts were on the scene until 3am Monday and estimated that the victim had been dead for at least 10 days, Surawet said.

There was a gunshot wound in the back of the head and stab wounds in the back.

Surawet said investigators suspected Manop might have killed Issada and was now on the run.

The former rental-estate agent, currently unemployed, reportedly took medication to control depression, as did his wife Issada.

The couple had had three girls and a boy before separating in 2016. They reunited a few months ago but often argued.

A security guard in the compound said he’d seen a truck twice deliver sand since February 4.